Mamabadger56 Cold Souls starts with a very odd, even silly premise and takes it as far as it will go, treating the outlandish story with perfect seriousness. As a result, the movie is more than just a goofy sci-fi comedy - although it has its funny moments. There are elements of humour, of tragedy, of suspense, and even some gangster action. The basic story: Paul Giamatti, playing a version of himself, is an actor who is struggling with negative emotions while preparing for a role in Uncle Vanya. In an effort to resolve these issues, he submits to a newly developed procedure which removes a person's soul, placing it in storage until wanted. He is relieved of strong feelings, but runs into unexpected problems trying to conduct his life as a soulless person. The situation is further complicated by a thriving black market for donor souls.Paul Giamatti's performance is definitely one of the best things about the film. I particularly enjoyed Giamatti rehearsing scenes from Uncle Vanya, first as his ordinary self; then as himself minus a soul; and finally, as himself with a donor soul from a female Russian poet. This is an entertaining movie overall. The plot is full of continual unexpected twists, some funny, some rather dark, and never becomes dull or predictable.

bowmanblue Talking about Cold Souls is almost impossible without mentioning Charlie Kaufman (who wrote Being John Malkovich and other similar 'far out' screenplays). Unfortunately, Cold Souls' writer/director Sophie Barthes seems to want to distance her work from that of Kaufman's.If you've seen Being John Malkovich you'll know the script is a back 'out there' (and if you haven't seen it, you definitely should!) - it explores weird existential themes like multiple people living in one body etc. And, whether Sophie Barthes likes it or not, or even meant it or not, Cold Souls if definitely in the same category.Paul Giamatti plays (a slightly exaggerated various of) himself - an actor of reasonable credibility, who's having trouble getting into character for one of his plays. He hears about a company who can remove (and store) your soul, freeing you up for apparently anything.If you can believe in the concept of removing, storing (and even selling!) your soul, then you should at least be intrigued by this film. It's part drama, part comedy and part make-you-question-the-nature-of-being, but never stays with just one of the genres for any length of time.Naturally things don't go right for poor Paul and his soul gets stolen and he has to track it down. What follows won't have you falling off your seat laughing, nor in floods of tears, but, if you're after something that's just a little bit quirky then this one might be for you.Bottom line: if you liked Being John Malkovich then this one may also amuse.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

rooprect I've heard if you want to see an impression of an angry ferret, just tell director/writer Sophie Barthes that this movie reminds you of "Being John Malkovich". But rather than being annoyed at the comparison, she should accept it as high praise. Whether she intended it or not, there is no denying that the plot, theme, tone, city and even the cinematography is much like the aforementioned Kaufman masterpiece, and, like comparing "I Dream of Jeannie" to "Bewitched", there's no avoiding the thought. But, as with "I Dream of Jeannie", you should enjoy it on its own, especially in a world where such imaginative fantasies only cone along once in a blue moon.OK, enough of that. Let's talk about "Cold Souls". I won't bother telling you the plot, and I'd even advise against reading synopses. The beauty of surrealist cinema is the way it catches you unawares, challenges your notion of reality and surprises you with its absurdness. So the less you know, the better.I'll just tell you about the tone & presentation. This is very much a tongue-in-cheek comedy. Don't expect any big zingers or even any Woody-Allenish rambles (despite the director's statement that she was most inspired by Woody), because the comedy comes mostly from bizarre situations rather than dialogue or neurotic narration. In that respect, the film has a very European vibe, maybe like Godard's "Alphaville" or the Russian scifi comedy classic "Kin-Dza-Dza". By most Hollywood standards, this may seem like a slow movie. But even that, the director acknowledges in a funny scene where one character criticizes the hero's play for being "too Russian". This film is not afraid to make fun of itself, as all good surrealistic works should be able to do.I may be out of touch, but I had never heard of Paul Giamatti before this. He really delivered a great performance, intermittently playing the part of a great actor, a lousy actor, a great actor who's acting lousy, and a great actor who's acting lousy but temporarily infused with greatness. Yeah, it sounds confusing but it all makes sense in the film.I recommend this film, and if you like it I also recommend the obscure low-budget gem "Game 6" (about a murderously depressed playwright in NYC), "Angels in America" (a strange surrealistic comedy/drama about, of all things, AIDS), and of course "Being John Malk--" oh jeez here comes an angry ferret.

Skadian After seeing how "Being John Malkovich" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" use their sci-fi premises to enhance and extract romantic or existential story-lines, I found "Cold Souls" to be lacking in dramatic consequence and over-flowing in technicalities surrounding it's particular sci-fi premise.In this film the actor Paul Giamatti plays the actor Paul Giamatti, who decides to have his soul stored away for two weeks, while he works on a difficult theater role. When his soul is stolen from the soul storage company, he ventures out to find it, thereby meeting a Russian woman, Nina (Dina Korzun), who works as a soul transporter.This plot results in bizarrely funny scenes, for example when Paul accidentally drops his soul on the floor, and the manager crawls around nervously to search the carpet for it as if he were looking for, while afraid to step on, a contact lense.The film also contains many suggestions as to the consequences of separating yourself from your soul. However, the film is inconsistent in these suggestions - do you have feelings or not, when you are without a soul? Do you have a conscience or not?After having spent many scenes throughout the first half movie on Paul's rehearsals in the theater, director Sophie Barthes leaves this theme altogether for the second half.Whereas the two above-mentioned movies keep the technicalities of their premise in the background, this movie spends many lines explaining how souls leave residue etc., without adding to the story.I was entertained by this movie and it inspired a somewhat soul-searching conversation with my co-viewer. I found Giamatti's performance pleasant and was quite fascinated by Dina Korzun's quiet, almost cool humbleness as Nina. But when it came to the story's personal and existential development, I was left with too many blanks.